Holden Commodore Problems

You shouldn’t need to replace the entire roof lining in your car, but it will need to be removed to have the replacement foam and cloth covering applied. Any roof lining repair will involve getting rid of the old foam that has broken down and caused the delamination of the backing board and the cloth or vinyl. From there, the new foam and cloth can be applied to your original backing board and the assembly refitted to the car.

Another alternative is to have a new headliner installed, sometimes a reconditioned unit that some motor trimmers have on the shelf, ready to go. Some companies will even come to you and replace the roof lining in your driveway or work car-park. You can also source or buy a second-hand roof lining from a wrecked car which, in the case of a common model like a Holden VE Commodore shouldn’t be hard to find. You’ll still need to remove the old one and fit the new one, however. In some instances, you may still be able to buy a brand-new roof lining from the manufacturer, but that’s a long shot and will cost a lot more.

Meanwhile, a VE Commodore roof lining replacement cost will be roughly anywhere from $300 to $600 depending on whether you want the repairer to come to you, you’re happy with a standard (not custom) covering and the car is a standard model. A car with a sunroof fitted will add to that total as it’s a fiddlier job with more to remove and replace.

Repairing the roof lining yourself is not a simple job, as it requires the removal of a bunch of fittings such as interior lights, sun-visors, interior mirrors and that’s before you can even try to manoeuvre the single-piece roof lining out through one of the car’s doors. That’s the reason you see a lot of cars getting around with their roof lining patched up and held in place with everything from thumb tacks to staples.

This all goes back to the 1990s when car-makers discovered that a single-piece, structural-cardboard backing board covered in foam and then cloth or vinyl was a much cheaper alternative than the traditional metal-bow roof lining. The new system was also much faster to fit on an assembly line. But with time and heat cycles, the foam that many car-makers used breaks down into a fine, powdery dust at which point the adhesion between the layers is lost and the cloth sags down and billows into the cabin. Replacing the degraded foam and fitting new cloth or vinyl is the best solution and will return the roof lining to as-new.

There’s more information on what’s involved here.

The biggest potential repair cost for this make and model would probably be the replacement of the engine’s timing chains. These were of poor design and quality from the start and many Commodore V6s of this era have suffered stretched chains which require replacement. It’s not a cheap job, either, and you should budget for at least a couple of thousand dollars. While the vehicle in question has covered low kilometres, the health or otherwise of its timing chains will be down to how well it’s been serviced over the years. Any skipped servicing makes it a ticking time bomb in this regard. But even well maintained vehicles have experienced the same problem.

Assuming your car is a V6, I’d recommend a quality brand of oil with a viscosity of either 5W30 or 10W40. Provided you buy a quality, known brand, it will have all the additives that make modern multi-grade oils so much better than the oils that went before them. If your car runs on LPG (as many Commodores do) then you need to buy an oil that’s designed for use with this fuel. Fundamentally, though, the same rules apply: Stick to the correct grade and weight of oil and only use a quality brand, not the generic-branded supermarket stuff.

The actual oil capacity for a V6 Commodore of that vintage is 5.3 litres, so if you buy a six-litre pack, you’ll have enough for tops-ups between oil changes. Don’t forget to change the oil filter, too. While some mechanics reckon changing the filter every second oil change is enough, the wisdom of putting nice, clean oil through a dirty filter is beyond me, especially considering an oil filter costs only a few dollars.

Changing your engine’s oil is probably the best engine insurance you can buy. But you need to do it properly, so a workshop manual is probably a good thing to have as well as it should walk your through the process (important the first time). You also need to be able to dispose of the old oil and filter in an environmentally responsible way, too. But this is a great first maintenance job for the budding home mechanic and can really save you some money over the years. Good luck with it.

The biggest potential repair cost for this make and model would probably be the replacement of the engine's timing chains. These were of poor design and quality from the start and many Commodore V6s of this era have suffered stretched chains which require replacement. It's not a cheap job, either, and you should budget for at least a couple of thousand dollars. While the vehicle in question has covered low kilometres, the health or otherwise of its timing chains will be down to how well it's been serviced over the years. Any skipped servicing makes it a ticking time bomb in this regard. But even well maintained vehicles have experienced the same problem.

The biggest problem with this model of Commodore was it’s V6 engine and that unit’s propensity to suffer stretched timing chains. Cars without a full service history will be the worst offenders, but even a car with a perfect maintenance track record can still require new timing chains. However, this usually occurs long before 200,000kmk have been clocked up, so it would be very interesting to see if the car you’re looking at has, indeed, had this repair made by a previous owner. Of course, even if the timing chain has been replaced, that’s no guarantee that the problem won’t occur again. There’s also a suspicion that the three-litre version of the Holden V6 was a bit underpowered and needed to be driven hard everywhere; a situation that didn’t help timing-chain wear at all.

Other problems with the VE Commodore generally include some electrical problems that are surfacing with age, particularly camshaft-position sensors, a build-up of carbon on the intake valves which can cause rough running and poor economy, oil leaks and leaks from the cooling system. That said, if you can find a good one with an engine that has had new timing chains, the VE wagon represents a lot of car for not much money these days.
 

It all depends on what engine is fitted to your car, Karen, as Holden used a range of gearboxes in this series of Commodores. If your car is the base-model version (the Omega) it will be fitted with a four-speed automatic (code-named the 4L60E). If your car is an SV6, it will have either a five-speed automatic (5L40E) or a six-speed manual (the Aisin D173/AY6 unit). If your car is a V8 Commodore, it will have either the six-speed automatic (6L80) or a six-speed manual (Tremec T56) fitted.

Of all those transmission options, the five-speed automatic was the odd one out as it was only used from the launch of the VE until the first facelift in 2008 when it was replaced by a six-speed automatic.

This is not an unknown problem with Holden’s Alloytech V6 engine and can often be traced back to a damaged gasket for the thermostat housing which is located at the rear of the engine block. And you’re right, to change this gasket which costs just a few dollars, involves removing the exhaust and transmission. The best advice is to have the thermostat itself changed while all this work is being done, as it will save you going through it all again if the thermostat ever fails (and they have been known to).

But definitely have it checked out as coolant leaks never fix themselves and a small leak today could easily be a big leak tomorrow, leaving you stranded with an overheating engine. Meantime, you might be lucky and discover that the leak is not from the thermostat housing at all. These engines are also prone to coolant leaks from a pair of O-rings at the front of the cylinder heads which can allow coolant to leak through the valley and out the back over the transmission tunnel, making you think the leak is from the rear of the V6. Don’t rule out the water pump as a source of leaks, either. The trade seems to think about 100,000km is the lifespan for an Alloytech V6’s water pump.

I can’t see why not, Peter. The 1996 and 1999 are more or less identical cars so there should be a high degree of interchangeability. While manual versions of the Commodore Ute form this era did, indeed, change gearbox types as the years progressed, the automatic version stuck with the same unit, so the gearbox and all its ancillary bits and pieces should be a straight swap.

And how good is a ute with a bench seat for three and a column-shift? Car makers should revisit this layout as it makes so much sense.

There are many, many things that can make a car overheat. A faulty radiator, collapsed radiator hose, jammed thermostat, blown head gasket, low coolant level, incorrect ignition or camshaft timing, faulty fuel injectors, the list goes on and on. So you need to have the car scanned electronically to see if a fault code is offered up that could be the cause or part of the problem. First, though, I’d have a close look at the obvious stuff like a leaking radiator or blown radiator hose to make sure that it’s not a really simple fix. Even a faulty radiator cap – as simple as that sounds – can lead a car to overheat.

To be honest, a 34-dgree ambient day should never be enough to make a modern car overheat, especially not one like a Holden Commodore which was designed here to easily cope with our weather and temperature extremes.

It’s interesting to note that you bought the car from a dealer, so it would be worth going back and checking the paperwork to see if the car was sold with any warranty. It’s doubtful, however, as a 2005 model car falls outside the boundaries of Victoria’s statutory warranty legislation (generally a used car must be less than 10 years old and have travelled less than 160,000km before a statutory warranty applies from a licensed car dealer). A good mechanic who knows this type of car should be able to sort it, but have it checked soon; continuing to drive it with an overheating problem is a sure way to make small problems bigger ones.

The short answer is no, as the Mazda6 has never sold to expectations and all the action in the luxury sphere is in SUVs or crossovers.

However, with Mazda heading into the premium space and in model-sharing activities with arch-rival Toyota, a 6-style sedan based on the mooted coming, rear-drive and inline six-cylinder powered CX-5 replacement is expected, possibly to be shared with a Toyota or Lexus model. These are pure rumours right now, but a possible scenario as Mazda attempts to amortise the development and engineering costs of its next-generation architectures.

But we don't believe a sedan or wagon larger than a Mazda6 would be part of these future plans – not in the foreseeable future, anyway.